“Legends”: Two legends on one stage
Maamol, by: Adir Finkelstein
March 23, 2022

Between ballet and rock, between delicacy and sharpness, between bodysuit and tattoo sleeve. What happens when you connect two world-class choreographers with one of the leading dance companies in Israel, to perform works for two rock legends? Not what you expected.

A dim white light lit into a foggy, smoky stage. Patti Smith’s music starts playing. A dancer enters the stage from her left and an opal feeling surrounds her. The light accompanies the dancers, giving them the appearance of a silhouette. They are dressed in black pants, black socks and a network of tattoos for their skin and come in to perform a mesmerizing solo or duet.

The show “Legends” premiered at the Mishkan for Performing Arts on March 3rd in Be’er Sheva, and consists of two works created by two of the best choreographers in the world and performed by the Be’er Sheva “Kamקa” dance company. The first work is “Thin Skin”, by the German choreographer, Marc Goecka, and the second is “Rain Dogs”, the work of the Swedish Johan Inger. They differ from each other in language, in compositions and perhaps in almost everything, but some general lines connect them to each other: the thick smoke that surrounds the stage, the position of the dancers on it, certain gestures of the bodies that are made in a similar way and of course the music stops.

The works are tributes to rock legends: the first to rock-punk icon Patti Smith and the second to Tom Waits, whose album, “Rain Dogs”, entered the list of the 500 best albums of all time in “Rolling Stones” magazine. Hence the author name “Legends”. Both works were originally made for other companies: the first for the Nederlands Dance Theater “NDT1” in 2015 and the second for the Basel Ballet in Switzerland in 2011. Still, it is impossible not to be amazed by the abilities demonstrated by the members of the “Kamea” company and the choice of two of the best choreographers in the world to work with the Israeli troupe.

This year Marco Goecke was chosen as “Choreographer of the Year” by the European Dance Critics Organization. The one who is also known as the “dark prince of the dance world”, takes us into Smith’s music and the hidden ravages, through the precision of the excellent dancers. Excellent ballet technique is combined with sharp hand movements and large sections of the stage. Within this strictness, the audience goes through a journey of madness, anxiety, fear, sexuality and control with the dancers.

The action Goecke produces is very reminiscent of Sergei Polonin, the excellent, tattooed ballet dancer who burst into the public consciousness in 2017 with the docu-film made about him, The Dancer, directed by Steven Kantor. The giant ballet dancer pollutes the ballet, breaking and bringing a strong personal voice. The incessant need to dance, that exploding joy, is the dancers’ way of expressing their pain, their anger and madness. One can also think of Natalie Portman in the film “Black Swan” (2010) by Darren Aronofsky, in which she expresses the same deadly combination between the extremes, between the desire to dance and express herself and the strict demands of the dance world. Goecke also highlights in his work the same dichotomies between ballet and fragility, when he also combines extreme facial expressions, many jumps and clenched fists.

After a short break, the second act begins with a dancer standing at the front of the stage speaking a foreign language. The lighting highlights him in a yellow-spotted light and behind him at the edge of the stage, a stack of tapes shaped like a rectangle. Both give a sense of another time and place. The whole band enters into a column and from there they start playing hand games and walking out. The show brings lightness and a certain pause to the previous one we saw. In the background is accompanied by the bizarre music of Tom Waits, which consists of a combination of many styles including cabaret and jazz. With Waits’ voice and the thick smoke that is spread onto the stage, a dim feeling is created, melancholic even, and the use of the stage throws us mentally into the street. The audience seems to enter the era of Waits’ album, which was released in 1985, and describes the city of New York when his music is played throughout the show.

Compared to the first piece that stood out for the predominantly male solo performances, the second piece brings a much more varied methodology and includes solos, duets, trios and long sections of the entire ensemble. Sometimes the performance gives a gimmicky feeling in dealing with gender and relationships, when it is between playful and serious. However, the overall nature of the show is jaw-dropping. David van der Veen’s position at the center of the show in general is also evident. He opens the second piece, performs a trio with two women afterwards and leads the show for the most part.

In a similar way to the writings of the researcher Michel de Sarto about New York, the work relates to urban life and to the changes that occur frequently in it. The walks in the street and the random meetings, a story about a love triangle, bending the gender rules and changing clothes between the men and the women. De Sarto describes the city as being constantly created by the people who live it through the multitude of gestures. Thus the work “Rain Dogs” is like a good musical that brings the big city to the stage. A video of clouds is projected on the background of the stage, the lighting is strong and changes in color. These give it a different touch, compared to the first piece. They allow us to end the show lightly and return to everyday life, with our hearts still full of excitement from the dance that our eyes saw and the music we have heard.

The show brings breaking of conventions, breaking of the body and breaking of classical ballet. It makes a connection between the outside world and the hall and the stage. The choreographers consciously choose these fragilities, just like the rock legends they broke and added to it mini-genres and personal interpretations. They bring the extreme moments to the stage and combine the pleasant and the light, the classic and the strong, the grotesque, the tattooed and the dark.